Electronic design automation (EDA) is a category of systems for assisting with the design of electronic systems and devices. Such electronic design automation systems work in a design flow that allows system designers to create and analyze complex systems. Tools for device design, simulation, analysis, and verification are part of many electronic design automation systems.
A parameterized cell (PCell) refers to an EDA tool, which is a representation of a part or a component of a circuit whose structure is dependent on one or more parameters. A cell in a circuit design is a basic unit of functionality, and a PCell allows flexible representation of a cell by allowing different parameters. A PCell with selected parameter values may be used as part of a circuit design. An instance of a PCell with selected parameter values allows creation of the structure for the associated component within a larger circuit design. The PCell thus simplifies the design process by standardizing certain portions of a circuit and using input values to generate shapes of a mask design for the portion of the circuit associated with the PCell. Classic PCells are limited to receiving input values for the parameters and generating the associated portion of a circuit layout. Such PCells are purely functional, with the same set of input parameter values generating the same corresponding design layout regardless of any other elements of an overall circuit. Statically-Context-Enhanced PCells (SCE-PCells) represent a specific subset of Classic-PCells whose PCell instances receive immutable information about their surrounding design context via instance specific and context-specific parameters.